Yo Man, It's the Formula

This summer I’ve found two new shows worth watching, Saved and Psych, and I suggest you set check them out. This isn’t going to be an entry where I review them though. See, I’ve noticed some similarities between the two, and it seems to be the new formula for television shows. Where as a few years back everything seemed to try and copy Friends, you had a group of good looking white kids who seemed to have life styles we all wanted. They had interesting jobs, or crappy jobs that paid well enough to support pricey apartments. They never had trouble getting dates, and always had a cool place to hang out.

And I’m not entirely sure where this change happened but, now I can count four shows that I watch that fit this new formula, which goes like this:

1CWG + 1RBGx IC= TV show
(1 charming white guy + 1 responsible black guy x an interesting career)

It’s close to the ol’ reliable buddy cop formula Hollywood has used since the 80’s. With Saved, you have a paramedic who comes from a well to do family. Only he’s a bit of disappointment since he didn’t want to become an actual doctor, and he has a bit of a gambling problem. Still, nothing seems to faze him. He’ll bond with the sick girl, or risk his life to save a trapped woman or face his bookie without worrying about his own well being. Meanwhile at work he drives around in an ambulance with his black partner, who is busting his tale to be a decent father and takes everything seriously. They’re breaking stereotypes damnit.

In Psych, we have yet another son who has let his father down. This time Dads a cop and tried for years to train his son to have a photographic memory, which he does. But instead of using it for good, he’s used it to skate through life. Basically he’s Ferris Bueller on constant vacation. Then he trips into a gig as a psychic for the local police. Always able to figure out what happened before the police. Oh, and he has a partner. A reluctant one, if anything, who also happens to be black. Who has a steady job, is a bit anal and just thinks that police work should be left to the inept cops.

Shows from the fall season that seem to also fit this formula are House (although Omar Epps isn’t EXACTLY House’s partner) And Scrubs. What’s interesting me is that they have yet to try this formula (that I know of) with female leads. Or maybe that’s a show on WE. What I propose is taking this, mixing it with the formula that makes Entourage so great and some how made every women in the world watch Sex in the City, sprinkle in a few parts of whatever JJ Abrams does and you’ll have the biggest show in the history of the world. It might even be Tivo-able.